I love this Jin Dynasty, but should we also give the original Chinese some updates?

Orlean duchy was just a “city stat” you won t have any material from it, Armagnac league otherwise fit the periode of the Hundred years wars plus you have stuff to play. Like the longbow in the army :joy: but nobody want to give longbow to french! Even if royal knigth for JA in complet civil war for the crown is a stupid.
(just like the ID off healing mfs when your army is rigth behind chasing them. There is an aoe civ where healing don t work is enemies are near by??? tughlaq??)

I fully agree! Giving it in the Castle Age could work, but with less HP (in élite) for China. The Jin could get it in Imperial Age, but heavier and maybe costing around +10 gold or something like that. That could be both cool and more historical. (and just change the helmet betwenn the two like you suggest)

Yeah, that’s true. Villages could pay more taxes or provide a fully equipped arbalester. So having a feudal levied arbalester, in exchange for a small nerf to the Royal Knight, could be nice…

I don’t recall bringing up the topic of helmets; maybe it was @ahioz9426 who mentioned it. I recall him bringing up a similar topic, and I actually agree with his take — the Torguud’s helmet would be more fitting for the Iron Pagoda.

As for unit balance, I’ve never believed that adding new units inevitably breaks the balance. After all, their costs can be tweaked, and they can have trade-offs, like lower HP or shorter range. If push comes to shove, they could even further nerf the Chinese economy.

That would be far more interesting than the current state, where they have a strong economy but end up just spamming generic units.

Yeah, besides the historical and design flaws, was a very good game with awesome units…

Yeah, that’s true…is because TAD was developed by Big Huge Games (the creators of Rise of Nations) and since TAD was the last expansion for the game, they put all the effort in the creation of the Asian civilizations, with whatever unit they found, that why the Chinese are a Ming-Qinq mix civilization and the Indians are a Mughal-EIC mix civilization…the Japanese are OK, since they are centered in the Sengoku-Jidai…

It is truly a pity of AoE3 and AoM, they both are of excellent quality, yet they struggle to retain enough player base. I also regret that some of their features weren’t carried over to AoE4, such as the physical knockback effects of artillery fire and dedicated siege operators.

Another critical point is population slots — units with high performance should occupy more than 1 pop to prevent one side from overwhelming the other with superior unit value at max pop. AoE4 fails in this regard; in Nomad mode, a player who manages to mass a full pop of high-tier units is practically invincible.

You can’t walk around a corner on these forums without finding an AoE III fan :sweat_smile: They’re all over the place.

(no judgement here, this is the AoE franchise community forums)

I’m not going to lose sleep if they add actual operators, but the siege unpacking animation was done in the same golden animated fresco style of the construction effects. This is a consistent art direction thing. It’s not about “not carrying features over”. A animation isn’t a feature.

Physics is a very different conversation, I do wish siege engines had better death animations though.

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Sure, some design decisions were and are for various balance reasons…

Yeah, we are little community but sometimes very loud…anyway, i think AoE 4 now is a very good and funny game…:sweat_smile:

Oh, you know what? I actually expected Siege units in AoE4 to at least have a few crew members pushing them. Even if we keep golden animation, and crew members just stood there when firing, it would still be better than the siege weapons moving on their own for no apparent reason.

Maybe long-time AoE2 players are used to it and don’t mind, but for those of us who started with AoE3, it definitely feels weird.

However, this isn’t an issue that can be resolved in the short term, so I haven’t spent too much breath arguing about it lately.

Perhaps we can look forward to AoE5, but given the current popularity of AoE3, it’s hard to say how much they would actually align AoE5 with it.

Yes, they’ll probably play it safe again and make Age of Empires 5 set in Antiquity (like Age of Empires Online but with realistic or semi-realistic graphics like Age of Empires 4, and maybe or maybe not with landmarks to progress from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age, then to the Iron Age, and finally to the Imperial Age).

  1. Copper Age (5000-3000 BC): Egypt and Sumer

  2. Bronze Age (3000-1200 BC): China, Babylon, and the Hittites

  3. Iron Age (1200-27 BC): Greece, Macedonia, Mauryas, and Carthage

  4. Imperial Age (27 BC-476 AD): Rome, Parthia, and Yamato

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I’m not sure. Judging by what AoE4 players — and the Devs — seem to prioritize, they really lean towards Knights and Castles, which weren’t prevalent in the Greek and Roman eras. Personally, I’m fine with either, but I’m just uncertain about what the mainstream player base thinks.

Yes, but they could make war chariots and fortresses for that… take, for example, the Chronicles DLCs for AoE 2… the other option would be to move forward in time and delve into early modern Europe (1600-1900) and fill the gaps left by AoE 3 in that regard (only 8 historical maps that don’t offer much beyond the description and map design) (the only competition it could have here would be Cossacks 4 and TW Empire 2 and Napoleon 2 if they come out after Medieval 3)… and the last option would be to skip that and dive headfirst into the 20th century, but then competing with games like Sudden Strike 5 and CoH 4 when it comes out…

After watching the trailer for the new Age of Empires IV DLC, “Legacy of Yue Fei,” I’d like to share the following feedback:

  1. The DLC is marketed around Yue Fei, but the actual content focuses almost entirely on the Jin Dynasty. Yue Fei’s own faction gets no new units or mechanics, making his campaign feel stale and missing the point. Yue Fei is a beloved national hero in China—everyone knows his story. If the campaign only retells that story without making Yue Fei’s faction a playable variant of the Chinese civilization in PvP, it’s unlikely to generate much interest.

  2. Despite Yue Fei being the protagonist, the trailer heavily features his enemy, the Jin Dynasty—a sinicized regime that most Chinese people dislike or even resent. The Jin and Song were two dynasties ruling different parts of China simultaneously, but traditionally the Song is seen as the legitimate dynasty and the Jin as the antagonist. This contrast between the marketing and the actual content feels confusing.

  3. The existing Chinese civilization (representing the Song) currently has unique units that feel increasingly underwhelming. In practice, most players end up relying on generic, featureless units. Many Chinese players were hoping this China-themed DLC would bring meaningful improvements to the original Chinese civilization, making its identity and special traits stand out more.

  4. Based on the trailer, many of the Jin’s unique units and landmarks (e.g., Zhanmadao, bed crossbow, three-barreled hand cannon, Kaifeng Prefecture) actually belong to the Han‑led Song and Ming dynasties. Could the dev team consider adding some of these new units to the existing Chinese civilization as well? If the Jin’s introduction is accompanied by substantial enhancements or adjustments to the Chinese civilization, it would greatly satisfy players who enjoy playing as China.

Thank you for listening!